Valley of Shadows by Cooper Steven

Author:Cooper, Steven
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Valley of Shadows
ISBN: 9781645060062
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Published: 2019-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

Ivy’s sluggish on her walk this morning. She’s had it with the 100-plus-degree heat. All she wants to do is sit on the tile floor and sleep, or jump into the pool and bathe, and Gus can’t blame her. “I get it, girl,” he tells her. “We’ll make this a short one.”

She looks up at him with gratitude all over her face, as if she understood what he said.

He should have walked her around six, like most of the dog owners in the neighborhood, but he slept in and she slept in and she doesn’t easily budge from the cold tile. People driving by are accusatory in their stares. Normally they smile warmly, melted as they are by the sight of the beautiful golden retriever. But this morning they’re hateful, looking at Gus as if he’s abusing the dog by bringing her out in this heat. As if he’s committing an act of animal cruelty. He doesn’t need the looks. He knows how hot it is.

But, actually, the morning did not feel warm at all. Gus can’t put his finger on it. He can’t quite intuit, but ever since he spoke to Alex this morning he’s sensed a dark chill. Despite the blazing sky, Gus sees a horizon swirling with dark clouds. Then he stands at the edge of a black tunnel. The coolness seeps into his skin, settles in his bones, before he even steps into the tunnel. He doesn’t hear a message. It’s as though a vision is warning him about another vision. He can’t remember if this has ever happened. He’s a bad psychic that way. He doesn’t take notes. He should take notes. He should do a lot of things that real psychics do but he doesn’t. He returns to the house with Ivy and shrugs this whole thing off the second he hears a knock at the front door.

“Come in,” he tells Alex. “How about some hot coffee to cool you down?”

“Absolutely.” He’s holding a book and a box.

“Gifts?” Gus asks.

Alex just taps Gus’s shoulder and steers him into the family room. They sit. Ivy jaunts from her square of tiles and sticks her face in Alex’s lap. “Hey, girl,” he says, and gives her neck a vigorous scratch until she loses interest and retreats.

Alex hands the book to Gus and says, “It came from Viveca Canning’s personal library. We got it from her daughter.”

“From the library in that house? From the crime scene?”

“Yeah. Same house. Copper Palace.”

“I might have to go back there. But I’ll hopefully get what I need through the book. The Secret Garden. I’ve never read it. Have you?”

“No. Is that a problem?”

“Quite the contrary. Neither of us has any preconceived notions or expectations. The best way.”

“Great. Now stop stalling. Get to work.”

“I take Visa and MasterCard.”

Mills laughs a hearty laugh with traces of “fuck you” in its contours.

Gus flips through the pages, runs his hands across the prose, his fingers stopping occasionally to trace a letter or a word. The

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